Liming Cai
Assistant Professor University of Florida
- Gainesville FL
Liming Cai's research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of plant-plant and plant-animal interaction.
Biography
Areas of Expertise
Media Appearances
2021’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Biology
Quanta Magazine online
2021-12-21
A paradigm shift in how we think about the functions of the human brain. A long-awaited genetic sequence of Rafflesia arnoldii, the strangest flower in the world. A revelation in sleep science. These are some of the year’s biggest discoveries in neuroscience and other areas of biology.
DNA of Giant ‘Corpse Flower’ Parasite Surprises Biologists
Quanta Magazine online
2021-04-21
They are invisible at first. In their Southeast Asian forest homes, they grow as thin strands of cells, foreign fibers sometimes more than 10 meters long that weave through the vital tissues of their vine hosts, siphoning nourishment from them. Even under a microscope, the single-file lines of cells are nearly indistinguishable from the vine’s own. They seem more like a fungus than a plant. But when the drive to breed awakens them, the members of the Rafflesiaceae family erupt as immense, stemless, rubbery red “corpse flowers” covered in polka dots, with a putrid smell like rotting meat designed to draw pollinating carrion flies.
‘The most charismatic and strange of all flowering plants’: Harvard-led scientists produce most comprehensive genome yet of Sapria himalayana
The Harvard Gazette online
2021-01-22
Rafflesiaceae represent the most extreme form of parasitism, known as endoparasitism, in which the organism is completely dependent on its host for all nutrients. To those who study these plants, it’s one of the many things that makes them so remarkable.
Articles
The danger zone: The joint trap of incomplete lineage sorting and long-branch attraction in resolving the Gondwanan origin of Rafflesiaceae and Apodanthaceae
American Journal of BotanyCai, et al.
2026-05-12
Rafflesiaceae (Malpighiales) is an iconic parasitic plant clade of species that occur west of Wallace's line in tropical Southeast Asia. This clade has been notoriously difficult to place phylogenetically and is nested within an explosive ancient radiation in Malpighiales, rendering one of the thorniest nodes across the angiosperm Tree of Life. The parasitic family Apodanthaceae has recently been positioned as sister to Rafflesiaceae, offering hope of stabilizing their placements. Here, using a data set of 2135 genes and complex methods for species tree inference, we aimed to resolve the phylogenetic placement and divergence time of Rafflesiaceae and Apodanthaceae.
A composite universal DNA signature for the tree of life
Nature Ecology & EvolutionDe Medeiros, et al.
2025-06-25
Species identification using DNA barcodes has revolutionized biodiversity sciences. However, conventional barcoding methods may lack power and universal applicability across the tree of life. Alternative methods based on whole genome sequencing are hard to scale due to large data requirements. Here we develop a novel DNA-based identification method, varKoding, using exceptionally low-coverage genome skim data to create two-dimensional images representing the genomic signature of a species.
Well-resolved phylogeny supports repeated evolution of keel flowers as a synergistic contributor to papilionoid legume diversification
New PhytologistCai, et al.
2025-03-18
The butterfly-shaped keel flower is a highly successful floral form in angiosperms. These flowers steer the mechanical interaction with bees and thus are hypothesized to accelerate pollinator-driven diversification. The exceptionally labile evolution of keel flowers in Papilionoideae (Fabaceae) provides a suitable system to test this hypothesis. Using 1456 low-copy nuclear loci, we confidently resolve the early divergence history of Papilionoideae.
